Our heads hang in shame. Our eyes cannot meet any other eye. It is one of the darkest days among so many dark days hovering over our poor nation for quite sometime. That is March the 3rd, 2009 in the morning rush hour in the vicinity of Liberty Market in Lahore, we were unable to provide security to one of most important guests of the nation, the cricket team of Sri Lanka.
That they had chosen to tour Pakistan when all other nations flatly refused, we received solidarity from them when we really needed it. We should have cherished it and should have looked after them until they had left safely to their homes.
But we failed miserably. It was so pathetic to see the professional state of our security personnel. There seemed to be none!! Everyone saw what happened in those 20 to 25 minutes when every bit of national dignity was being drained out of us. A bunch of terrorists appeared out of nowhere armed with assault rifles, grenades and rocket launchers. They seemed to have a lot of time in their hands to spray bullets and fire granades and rockets at the thin security cordon and the players' bus with no back up of security personnel in sight ever. How they managed to reach there with all that stuff without being noticed is another mystery!!
Now how did that security lapse happen? Why there was inadequate security in the first place? Who were these terrorists? Why the terrorists spare the players when they could have easily killed any or all of them the way they liked and just chose to leave instead?Why not a single one of them didn't get injured or killed? Why no one in the administration has resigned accepting failure? May be we'd never find the real answer. We might only speculate and make an intelligent guess.
This is what Mukul Kesavan has to say who is a novelist, essayist and historian based in New Delhi. His article was first published in the Telegraph, Kolkata:
"There's something fundamentally unserious about this Pakistani dispensation. Its recent history reads like a soap opera about a banana republic: shady widower propelled to the presidency on the back of his bereavement gets pliant judges to disqualify his main political opponents. It's beyond satire. Some of this unseriousness seemed to have leaked into the security for this tour. It's as if the army has been the grown-up in Pakistani politics for so long that civilian politics has been infantilised."
Chris Broad, the match referee said plainly:
"I'm angry with the Pakistani security forces. We were promised high level security and in our hour of need that security vanished. There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere. They had clearly gone, left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks."
Simon Taufel, the Australian umpire didn't mince words either:
"I'm angry we were isolated, I'm angry we didn't get the same amount of security the playing staff got, and I'm angry that in our hour of need, we were left on our own.
"What I can tell you is we were isolated, left alone and unaccounted for. Looking at that footage, I can't tell you why we're here. I have absolutely no idea. I've seen reports to suggest they haven't caught anyone. I find that amazing. I don't know why."
These guys are well-respected and candid comments like this coming from them will grab attention. How long will it take for our politicians and leaders to wake up and do something for the country instead? If not now, then it will never be!
That they had chosen to tour Pakistan when all other nations flatly refused, we received solidarity from them when we really needed it. We should have cherished it and should have looked after them until they had left safely to their homes.
But we failed miserably. It was so pathetic to see the professional state of our security personnel. There seemed to be none!! Everyone saw what happened in those 20 to 25 minutes when every bit of national dignity was being drained out of us. A bunch of terrorists appeared out of nowhere armed with assault rifles, grenades and rocket launchers. They seemed to have a lot of time in their hands to spray bullets and fire granades and rockets at the thin security cordon and the players' bus with no back up of security personnel in sight ever. How they managed to reach there with all that stuff without being noticed is another mystery!!
Now how did that security lapse happen? Why there was inadequate security in the first place? Who were these terrorists? Why the terrorists spare the players when they could have easily killed any or all of them the way they liked and just chose to leave instead?Why not a single one of them didn't get injured or killed? Why no one in the administration has resigned accepting failure? May be we'd never find the real answer. We might only speculate and make an intelligent guess.
This is what Mukul Kesavan has to say who is a novelist, essayist and historian based in New Delhi. His article was first published in the Telegraph, Kolkata:
"Why did the Pakistan government roll the dice? Given the Marriott bombing, the troubles with the Taliban in recent times, why did it entrust the team's security to the Punjab Police instead of handing it over to commandos trained in some specialised way? After Mumbai, after Pakistan's own recent history, and given how much was at stake, why did the Pakistani state risk a replay of this familiar subcontinental tableau: untrained policemen being mowed down by professionally trained terrorists?
"There's something fundamentally unserious about this Pakistani dispensation. Its recent history reads like a soap opera about a banana republic: shady widower propelled to the presidency on the back of his bereavement gets pliant judges to disqualify his main political opponents. It's beyond satire. Some of this unseriousness seemed to have leaked into the security for this tour. It's as if the army has been the grown-up in Pakistani politics for so long that civilian politics has been infantilised."
Chris Broad, the match referee said plainly:
"I'm angry with the Pakistani security forces. We were promised high level security and in our hour of need that security vanished. There was not a sign of a policeman anywhere. They had clearly gone, left the scene and left us to be sitting ducks."
Simon Taufel, the Australian umpire didn't mince words either:
"I'm angry we were isolated, I'm angry we didn't get the same amount of security the playing staff got, and I'm angry that in our hour of need, we were left on our own.
"What I can tell you is we were isolated, left alone and unaccounted for. Looking at that footage, I can't tell you why we're here. I have absolutely no idea. I've seen reports to suggest they haven't caught anyone. I find that amazing. I don't know why."
These guys are well-respected and candid comments like this coming from them will grab attention. How long will it take for our politicians and leaders to wake up and do something for the country instead? If not now, then it will never be!
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